So gave Nioh a try, heh, yes, really, no, it's not the game for me, it never was going to be the game for me, but still free demo you know?

So, no, it was never going to succeed, but I didn't see the idiocy of the tutorial section coming. It starts off fine then you get asked to do this Ki pulse technique, it says press R1 but that's all. You press R1, nothing happens, you try a few more times, do it by sheer luck. Then you get told to do a Maximum Ki Pulse with little explanation. Screw that for a lark I had better things to do. (Did look it up and you have to press it at the right moment as your stamina bar fills up, so looking where the game doesn't tell you to - a lying tutorial? That's all I need.)

Even before that it was clear it wasn't for me, due to the fiddley-ness of some mechanics - anyone who enjoyed Ninja Gaiden / Demons/Dark Souls or Bloodborne should probably give it a look.

So got back to this instead:

Dragon Age: Inquisition

Only did a couple of small quests to get back into the habit, but there's some really nice touches to the game and the world design remains excellent.

What was a pleasant surprise is I talked to Varric, got an invite to a card game and things went off from there. It was entirely incidental to the plot but a very smart and fun sequence.

Oh, the quests? My gang slaughtered everything that came against us, it was a glorious battle.

I've been giving The Last Guardian a bit of a try on and off over the last few weeks. It's an interesting experience - quite a gentle, relaxing game in many ways, with some beautiful environments and a nice dynamic between the boy and the creature. But at the same time it's not very compelling (partly because the objectives aren't always very clear, so you end up wandering around aimlessly quite a bit) and there isn't any real sense of feeling driven to come back to it after you switch it off.

It's something I've been playing when I find myself at a loose end, but it doesn't take up any of my thoughts when I'm not playing it - and even when I am playing it, I feel as though it's washing over me a little bit, rather than truly engaging me. It's like the gaming equivalent of switching on the telly and then realising that you've been sat watching Gardener's World for the last ten minutes. And not only that, but you've been enjoying it.

Finished up BioShock infinite yesterday. Very impressive world building and musings on choice. They don't make .Any games like this.

I now have tomb raider, uncharted 4 and dishonoured 2 to tackle before mass effect in march.

I'm also feeling like I should try this Witcher 3 thing you guys keep raving on. I skipped it first time round because dragon age rage inquisition totally burnt me out on open world exploration. You all seem to love this thing though.

Definitely sounds worth a look. I found DAI characters and plot, apart from the last portion, wholy underwhelming. The open world was just too sprawling and aimless. I'm also a completionist so ended up being sucked into the collectathons and side quests despite the fact most were fairly dull.

Lots of sailing, buy the maps from the merchant to get some teleport points - will still be lots of sailing if you want to get all the question marks but beware, some are underground and can only be got via certain quests.

Lots of booze and brawling if you want.

Some well hard bastard enemies - be wary when exploring.

Oh and you'll end up doing the run from Kaer Trolde castle to the port ascent and descent a lot because it's so damn cool.

I pulled the trigger and bought the DAI mega bundle from the PS store as it was something ridiculous like £6 reduced from £64. Having said that, I'm not sure I'll ever play it. The thought of sinking 60+ hours into a game goes against everything I know and love and the fact I generally don't like open world games is another reason for me not to play. Mass Effect is about my limit as it was still kind of linear to a degree. Can I play DAI start to finish in a linear fashion in say, 20 odd hours?

I pulled the trigger and bought the DAI mega bundle from the PS store as it was something ridiculous like £6 reduced from £64. Having said that, I'm not sure I'll ever play it. The thought of sinking 60+ hours into a game goes against everything I know and love and the fact I generally don't like open world games is another reason for me not to play. Mass Effect is about my limit as it was still kind of linear to a degree. Can I play DAI start to finish in a linear fashion in say, 20 odd hours?

I'm the same as you, I'm not crazy about open world and I prefer a linear game. I tried to play Dai twice, and quit both times. I quit at 20 hours in both times too. It's a significant investment, and I honestly wasn't all that passionate about the game in general while I was playing it.

Got through the obligatory intro / tuition sequences. Only one irritation was a hard as nails mandatory karaoke sequence, which admittedly there is some plot reason for, but I'm hopeful this keeps the minigames optional unlike its predecessor Yakuza 5.

The fight system remains as fun as ever, smacking some moron's head into a wall or suplexing some fool onto a railing back first never gets old. Nor does bicycle assault - in that you grab one and batter them with it, as it falls apart in your hands. The innovative here is fighting well gives you more money which acts as EXP to upgrade your abilities - yes, you read that right - you beat people up for money.

It's important to remember that this is a prequel where Kiryu is still wanting to be a Yakuza, he hasn't grown a conscience and walked away from it, though even at this very early stage there are hints of that. There is also a very interesting easter egg bit of background info here for those who know what Kiryu goes onto to do, but works fine for those who don't. The major cut scenes have a distinctive graphical style that is effective. The benefit of PS4 tech is graphically quite subtle overall. Kamurcho is more detailed, with lots of little touches here and there, it'll be interesting to see how the Yakuza 1 remake works in a few months and next year Yakuza 6, as they'll be more familiar with the tech.

One of the things I loved the most about Witcher 3 was the costume design. I'm typically a fan of more imaginative, fanciful designs like in the Final Fantasy series, but this game takes that level of detail and applies it to costumes that you could actually live in and serve practical functions. And each region had its own fashion, where the people dressed differently but were tied together by the trends and styles of the region. The amount of work they put into it was incredible, and also very solid drapery effects too.

Unlike other games where the NPCs mostly just follow scripted paths - be in this place randomly in the day, walk around here and so forth, the NPCs in the Witcher seem to live full lives - they go on fishing expeditions, they get drunk, they hang their clothes out to dry, they ride between towns, they hunt, and so forth - there's so much detail there for what has no impact on the gameplay or story. I love that you can wander around Novigrad and come across a family in tears because the guards are burning their father.